2013 North West Icicle 11
Sunday 17th March 2013 - Glasson Sailing Club
Please click on the photos to see a larger one.
Thanks to Ivan who was Officer of the Day and for the photographs
Five boats turned out to race and two others took to the water.
Ivan set the course Cs - Gs - Ap - 18s - Ss (blue and red below) - three laps for Big John and Jack, two for the rest of us. John and Jacks boat are much faster than the others.
It had turned into a nice afternoon, no sun but the rain went away and there was enough wind to sail - we were expecting sunshine and F3 gusting F4 but the wind was F1 to F2, southerly with east in it.
The course looks fairly straight forward but to get to G we had to sail towards Basil Perch. Then to get to A we had to sail towards C. To reach 18 we had to sail towards G and to get to S we were swept upstream.
For the second race we more or less had the same course but only went as far as mark B instead of C: Bs - Gs - Ap - 18s - Ss - blue and green section - this was to make it easier to get back to the start when the ebb increased. Even though the course were substantially the same, the tide makes them completely different.
Michael was over the line at the start of the second race and in the confusion, avoiding the rest of the fleet who were charging towards the line, he was way behind. However he climbed up onto third place by virtue of his greater experience of the river.
Big John won both races this time with a new crew, Alex who had crewed for John Curlew yesterday. John had his regular crew Ian back today.
Jack is gradually learning to manage his RS600, not for the faint hearted. In the second race he finished only a few seconds behind Dad - John benefiting from being finished after two laps, he escaped the wind falling away and the tide ebbing strongly, which held back Michael, Slippers and John & Ian.
John and Dave checking the results.
John receiving the trophy from Vice-President Jim Cruise. John is a worthy winner coming from behind over the last two weekends.
Michael came second. When John and Michael had been in the same races John finished ahead of Michael eight times to Michael's three times ahead of John. John was ahead on all four races this weekend.
Slippers was third ahead of John & Ian, fourth and Ivan, fifth.
Michael is delighted that he had been able to sail in every race in the series.
Earlier in the day Michael & Big John put out the new marker buoy for D and and marked the new position for B.